Terracotta CoLab

MARCH 13TH - MAY 26TH

Mat Karas, Seth Payne, Tom Schmidt, and Kala Stein

OpeningThursday, March 15th, 5-7pm

Gallery CrawlFriday, April 27th, 5:30 - 10pm

This exhibition is the result of an intensive ceramic studio residency - funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and hosted by the Maryland Institute College of Art - where four artists explore historic architectural terracotta and digital fabrication. MICA- historically a Mechanics Institute- is situated in Bolton Hill, a neighborhood in Baltimore that offers hundreds of inspiring examples of American architectural terracotta from the 19th century. MICA is ideally situated on the edge of this neighborhood, allowing artist residents to have firsthand encounters with historical examples. Exploring the intersection of historical architectural terracotta and digital fabrication, these artists seek to innovate in design and motif through new technologies such as 3D scanning, computer aided design (CAD), and computer numerically controlled milling (CNC).

The exhibition asks how the broader ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement (where the maker is involved in both the design and production of objects) can be realized today, and specifically, how the workshop and contemporary tools (CAD, CAM, 3d printing) facilitate collaboration in small-scale production. Looking at past examples (the Deutscher Werkbund, Vienna workshops, and Bauhaus) how can artists rethink the workshop for contemporaneity in real time and space? The exhibition will include collaborative works from the residency, as well as works from the artist’s individual studio pursuits & research.